As millions of people around the world watch the Beijing Olympics,
actress and activist Mia Farrow is trying to draw attention to the
bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region, which she says is supported in
large part by China.
Farrow launched a series of "Darfur
Olympics" Webcasts Friday, showing the plight of refugees from Darfur
in camps in southern Chad.
She said the Beijing Olympics will
be remembered as the "Genocide Games" because they are financed by the
revenues China garners from arms sales to Sudan.
Farrow also
accused China, the main buyer of Sudan's oil, of failing to use its
influence on the government in Khartoum to stop the bloodshed in Darfur.
Human
rights groups say China buys nearly two-thirds of Sudan's oil. They
also say that Chinese weapons sold to Sudan are used to kill civilians
in Darfur. China denies the claim.
Farrow is the founder of
rights group Dream for Darfur. The actress, the star of such movies as Rosemary's Baby and The Great Gatsby, has actively campaigned for a
boycott of the games, in the hope of pressuring China to act on behalf
of Darfur.
She plans to post new Web casts with "voices from Darfur" each day during the first week of the Olympics.
International
experts say more than 200,000 people in Darfur have died and some
2.5 million have been displaced from their homes since local
rebel groups rose up against the Sudanese government in 2003.
Sudan says Western governments and the media have exaggerated the scale of the conflict.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
